Black Element's official discussion forum

Lesser zombie Joined: 29 Dec 2008 Posts: 2

I apologise for being a new member and starting a new thread right off. I searched most of the pages here and couldn't find a topic to simply 'resurrect'.

I have only recently found this game and started playing. Very excellent, and quite impressive in almost every way. So well crafted and professional that I wondered why I had never seen or heard of it until almost five years after it's release. Reading many threads of this forum makes it even more impressive as I learn more about it's origins.

Anyway, so the game is old now and showing up almost free in the software bargain bins, (if you can find it). That means there will likely be no more official patches or expansions released for it. The developers are on to bigger and better projects, I hope. The days of being a real money maker are over, so why not release the source code?

Almost 7000 people thought enough of the game to join this forum, and these are mostly only the English and German players, as far as I can tell. There are probably other forums and thousands of other players speaking/writing only French, Polish, Czech, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and???

Allowing this fanbase to make modifications will further increase non-modding interest in the game, and also increase interest in Black Element and other games they create.

Really, other than the possibility of someone making new mods to play, the only thing I am really hoping for is the implementation of a 'snapshot' or quicksave/load system that every other game of this type has. That was the ONLY thing the developers left out, and adding more save points doesn't fix that.

It is so unbelievably frustrating to miss one stupid jump and have to start over!!! I would have given up long ago, but the whole game is so beautiful and wonderfully detailed, I force myself to keep playing just so I can see all of it.

Black element priest Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 135

Hi, it would be great to release source code and I personaly don't have any
big problem with that. Unfortunatelly, the rights for Shade has been sold and I don't think we can legally do anything like that. Furthermore there is some licensed 3rd party software in (Meqon physics, what is now owned by nVidia AFAIK) which SDK we cannot release to public. I'll try to investigate if there is any possibility to do that.
_________________
Filip Doksansky,
Lead programmer,
Black Element Software

Black element priest Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 135

I just got idea - the whole game is written in our scripting language. There is not any game-related code inside engine. You can unpack game data, add custom directory and put there your own script code. There you can do whatewer you want with the gameplay. Also AI is written in script. If you're interested, I can give you hand with that.
_________________
Filip Doksansky,
Lead programmer,
Black Element Software

Lesser zombie Joined: 29 Dec 2008 Posts: 2

Many thanks for your answers and ideas, Filip. I could not ask for better help than from the Lead Programmer. Smile

What can be used to unpack the .res file? Different games always seem to use different formats of res, pak, dat files as resources. Game File Explorer, Dragon Unpacker, and Pakscape programs tell me it is an unrecognised format. You also wrote that the scripts are written in your own language, so I would need to know how to decompile and recompile them if not in an editable format.

I probably do not have the scripting or coding skills to do anything that I suggested, but I could look and see if I could understand the script, or find someone who can.

Presently I am stuck in Necropolis, trying to jump across the tops of those columns to collect an artifact. I've actually made it half way a few times, but then fall off trying to get to the next save point. Any place else I have had problems, I was able to make it after a few tries, but this area is terrible! I do this 5 or 6 times and give up to try another day. I don't think I have even tried for more than 1 week now. Sad

...and I was having so much fun.

I do not wish to add more save points, or cheats, or change anything about the game except the addition of a quicksave. My memory is not so good, and I should not have to play the game by stopping to keep notes: "First jump = doesn't matter since nothing to fall off. Second jump = medium speed. Third = doesn't matter," etc., with 10-12 different jumps. It seems that is what I will have to do in order to finish this great game.

Lesser zombie Joined: 13 Feb 2009 Posts: 1

I figure if there's a good place to ask this, it's probably here... Smile

I'm interested in checking out some of the in-game statistics, so I was wondering if there was a way to restore the old Quake/Doom console commands, like r_speeds and r_showtris. I've unpacked everything, and know my way around the file structure, but I'm not a programmer (not really, anyway) so I don't really know where to look and what's been done that I've have to change.

Black element priest Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 135

[quote="Fido"]

So, Fido, no answers?

I should be very interested for developing something for Shade.

Black element priest Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 135

Fido, you forgot to answer me also this time? Shocked

I waited months to see what you would have done, but no reply came to me...[/list]

Skeleton warrior Joined: 22 Nov 2004 Posts: 25

So who holds the rights to this game now?

They had a license issues, maybe an internal quarrel with the producers, how pity...

This is one of the greatest game I've ever played, and I guess neither the developers realizes it, about what masterpiece they created. I see no efforts to keep the interest in this game, so I tell you: don't give up!

Black element priest Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 135

I meant don't give up in sense to not abandon this game. Never heard about that engine, but surely it's very powerful: on my computer, with my previous card (GeForce 6600) at resolution 1600x1200, and with the best graphic options, the game runned without any flaws or flicks, even in open scenarios, while in Thief: Deadly Shadows I got flicks with the same configuration, always in open scenarios.

More: the Shade's graphic was sharp, and the scene was seen very well.

And you guys, are you working on some new project? I'm still playing to Alpha Prime, even if very rarely, because I'm going to release my second MOD for Thief.